...an award-nominated Irish blog on Irish history and Irish politics-from today and yesterday:all 32 Counties !Updated a number of times each week . (Mirror site here)

Thursday, September 21, 2006

The 'Royals'/UDA golf partners out for a stroll !

One wonders how Mary McAleese can find the time in her busy itinerary to open proceedings at a golf competition especially when , as far as we know , her husband's colleague ,Jackie McDonald , was not present . One also wonders if Mrs McAleese will receive an extra allowance , on top of the €6,613 per week which her spokesperson stated she receives "...for entertainment and personal expenses . The substantial proportion of this allowance goes to meet the cost of food , refreshments and entertainment.." We may yet have to do a collection , readers ......Incidentally , Mary McAleese did not have an agreed proposer or seconder in 1997 when she sought the nomination for the position of State President from Fianna Fail . As she said herself at the time - " Either of the candidates (Albert Reynolds and Michael O' Kennedy , left , holding a British trinket) could have got rid of me , there and then ; they would have been perfectly within their rights to insist that we follow the rules . That would have been the end of me and I would not have been a threat to whichever one of them was elected . I was very grateful for their generosity ."Martin McAleese stated at the time , in relation to that same Fianna Fail nomination meeting : " When Rory O'Hanlon (Fianna Fail Chairperson at the time) told us about the new procedure (ie that Fianna Fail were willing to forgo proposer and seconder) , I couldn't believe that Albert had left the door open for her like that . I can only put it down to overconfidence on his part . If I was in his shoes , I'm afraid I would have insisted on party rules being obeyed ."The McAleese's and their like , in Leinster House and in the Free State Senate , are non-productive leeches that are living beyond our means . They should first be made to apologise to the people on this isle , then forced to reimburse their ill-gotten financial gains and then permanently expelled from Irish soil .